It is rightly said that the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. The prowess to do something different is bestowed only upon a few, the rest follow the blind alleyway. In our field, where ‘Romance genre’ has become the new blind alleyway, something out of the box quenches our thirst for something fresh on the platter. And Mohit Goyal has successfully catered to the interest of the reader to a certain extent. Why you may ask? It is because ‘Colourful Notions’ is a book that offers an insight into the lives of people who think like us, the readers. Having excluded the mundane mushy love angle, the author has put in sincere efforts to draft a plot that might be liked by the majority.
Who doesn’t like to travel? And when we talk about a road trip with friends, who wouldn’t want to join the gang? The story begins with Abhay proposing the idea of going on an extended road trip with two of his friends. Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, it is that easy. On one hand where my mind was looking for an event or a person who/which would argue the toss, the storyline didn’t quite meet my expectations. The friends were all happy-go lucky fellows: Shashank was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and that made it obvious that his parents wouldn’t have said no to his long vacation, Abhay’s parents were rich and divorced, thus, making it even easier for him to get the permission, last but not the least, Unnati raised my hopes a little higher as her introduction came with a stereotype but somehow the portrayal of her mother spoiled the fun. In simpler words, roadtripping for about 75 days seemed so easy and so practical for these friends.
Moving further, we are exposed to 25 different locations in India where these friends travel and the narration done by the author for this part is exemplary. Yet something was amiss. I could not relate well with the feeling of freedom, satisfaction and liberation.
No doubt the book is one such literary piece that sure blows away the cobwebs. Even the narration has been done with such casual tone that the readers can relate with the conversation taking place. Despite this fact, I have to lay it on the line and mention that the (frequent) use of Hindi words put me in the black mood. Why can’t we use only one language to convey our thoughts?
Overall, considering that this is a debut novella by the author, I would restrict myself from appreciating the ‘thinking out of the box’ quality of the author and would express gratitude on the behalf of all the readers for a wonderful read.
Colourful Notions- The Roadtrippers 2.0
Author: Mohit Goyal
Publisher: Srishti Publishers
Rating: 3/5
About the Author
Active blogger and writer, Enakshi Johri, is a regular author for Indus woman Writing. She is a postgraduate in Biotechnology. She has written several articles, stories and poems and most of her content has been published in the ejournal of IWW (Indus Woman Writing). She is working as a curator for ‘fiction magazine’ (an online magazine). She has contributed in six Anthologies so far. She is also a freelance book reviewer. She is a creative thinker and a passionate writer and loves to pour down her heart in form of words. She shares her experience and her perception through her website (http://aliveshadow.blogspot.in/).
